Breaking Point
by inkstainedfingers97
Summary: Lorelei Martins was in custody again. Jane was in jail. And Teresa Lisbon had finally reached her breaking point.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Breaking Point

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters and I am not making any money off of them.

A/N: I started writing this after I saw the promo for Red Sails in the Sunset, so it incorporates some of the ideas from that episode but doesn't actually follow the plot of it. I've been pretty annoyed at Jane this season for how condescending he's been to Lisbon, and I'm annoyed at Lisbon, too, for letting him get away with it. So this is my version of Lisbon not letting him get away with all his crap anymore. The story is six chapters long, but each chapter is pretty short.

xxx

Lorelei Martins was in custody again. Jane was in jail. And Teresa Lisbon had finally reached her breaking point.

She couldn't believe he'd broken Lorelei out of jail. Helped one of Red John's disciples *escape.* Let her slip through the hands of justice for his own personal agenda.

Actually, she could believe it. And that was precisely the problem. She'd known from the moment Cho told her about Jane's passing question about how to break someone out of federal prison what Jane was planning to do. She'd tried to tell herself that it was a non-issue, because no matter how much Jane wanted to break his ex-girlfriend out of jail, it was impossible to break someone out of a supermax prison.

She should have known that Jane could pretty much always achieve the impossible when he put his mind to it.

She'd felt uneasy when Jane stopped answering his phone – that was never a good sign. But she'd known for certain what had happened once she'd gotten the call that Lorelei had broken out of prison.

The FBI was leading the search, for which she was grateful. She instructed the team to assist in any way they could, but at least she wasn't responsible for bringing the fugitives in herself. She tried to help where she could, but the truth was, she had no idea where Jane had taken Lorelei. The FBI had finally caught them when a gas station attendant recognized the couple from the pictures that had been on the news. Lorelei was returned to prison, and Jane was arrested for assisting in the escape of a prisoner.

Lisbon had had the option of being present at the arrest, but she had declined.

She hadn't gone to visit him in jail.

She knew he had been asking for her. He'd used his one phone call to call her, but she hadn't felt like listening to his explanations and excuses, so she'd cut the conversation short and called him a lawyer instead. Cho had gone to visit him in prison. He reported that Jane looked well and was asking to see her. "Tell him he can see me when he gets out of jail," she'd responded tartly. He was looking at three to five years. Maybe she'd have cooled off by then.

Grace and Rigsby went to see him a couple days later, and told her that Jane was looking less well, and was still asking to see her. "I'll think about it," she said brusquely, which was the first time in her memory she'd ever deliberately lied to her team.

She had no intention of going to see him. It had been a long time coming, but she was done with Patrick Jane.


	2. Chapter 2

Of course, she'd no sooner resolved never to see him again, when he showed up at her front door.

He gave her a sheepish smile when she answered the door at ten o clock on Friday night. "Hello, Lisbon."

She stared at him. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just out for a stroll. Thought I'd stop by, say hello to an old friend."

She wasn't in the mood for his jokes. "Why aren't you in jail?"

"I escaped."

She sighed. "Of course you did."

"I'm thinking of becoming a consultant to the people who design prisons. I could point out the weak spots in their security."

"What do you want, Jane?" she said wearily.

"To talk to you. May I come in?"

"No. You're supposed to be in jail. I've got enough problems in my life without worrying about being caught for aiding and abetting a known felon."

"Please? Just for a minute. Then I'll go back to jail willingly. You can take me yourself."

"Why did you even bother breaking out, then?"

He shrugged. "You said you would see me once I got out of jail. So I got myself out of jail."

"I meant when you were *released* from jail. Legally."

He flashed her a grin. "You should have been more specific, then."

She regarded him suspiciously. "You'll really go back to jail voluntarily if I let you in?"

"Yes. I promise."

Right, she thought. Like that meant a lot, coming from him. But she stepped aside anyway and let him enter the apartment.

He came in and looked around, nosy as ever. He was probably cataloging any changes he noticed from the last time he'd been here and analyzing them for any information he could glean about what they represented about the secrets of her soul.

"Well?" she said sharply, forcing him stop examining her apartment for hidden clues to her psyche as he turned around to face her. "You wanted to talk. Go ahead, talk."

He smiled at her again. "How are you?"

She stared at him in disbelief. "Seriously? That's why you broke out of jail? To ask me how I am?"

He shrugged. "I wanted to see you, and you refused to come visit me. The team told me you were upset, of course, but I found second hand intelligence on this matter was not completely satisfying to me."

"You wanted to see me. God, Jane, I am so sick of you acting like it's perfectly normal for you to get your way all the time. Once the police put you in jail, you're not supposed to get your way at all. That's the whole point of prison. To restrict the freedom of criminals so they are not able to act on their every whim. But you act like you're above it."

"So you think I'm a criminal now?"

"A criminal is a person guilty of breaking the law, Jane. You fit the bill."

He regarded her intently. "You're madder than I thought," he observed.

"Of course I'm mad! You broke one of Red John's helpers out of jail!"

"Don't you want to know whether I found out anything useful from Lorelei about Red John?"

"Frankly, no, I don't."

"Why not? Aren't you curious?"

"I don't want to be pulled into any more of your schemes."

He frowned. "Not even if it means finally catching Red John?"

She sighed. "If I thought it was probable, or even remotely likely that whatever you're planning next would actually result in Red John's capture and arrest, then maybe I'd consider it. But that seems optimistic to the point of foolishness, so I'd rather not waste my time."

"You don't think I can catch him?" Jane sounded shocked, like he'd never considered a reality where her faith in his abilities was less than absolute.

She looked him in the eye. "Nothing you've tried in the past to catch Red John has resulted in anything but dead ends and collateral damage. I don't see any reason to start expecting anything different now."

That shut him up.

"Now," she continued. "Are you ready to go back to jail?"

He submitted docilely to being taken back to jail in her SUV. He was uncharacteristically quiet on the way back. Lisbon might have found this to be a relief, if she wasn't certain his silence was indicative that his next disastrous plot was busy percolating in his brain.

But that wasn't her problem anymore, she reminded herself, as she took him up to the intake counter. "This is Patrick Jane," she announced. "He escaped from jail and he'd like to turn himself in."

"That's right," he piped up behind her. "Throw me back in the slammer, copper. I'm a no good dog who doesn't deserve to see the light of day again for a long time."

The guard raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything, just nodded to another officer on duty to come around and escort him back to his cell.

She didn't stay to see the door close behind him.


	3. Chapter 3

A week later, Jane turned up in her office. He was lying on her couch waiting for her when she came back from interviewing a witness out in the field.

She stopped short when she saw him and put her hands on her hips. "You escaped from jail again?" she said in exasperation.

"Nope," he replied, without opening his eyes.

She didn't believe him. "You know, heading straight to a building full of law enforcement agents after escaping from prison isn't exactly the move of a mastermind."

"I told you, I didn't escape."

"Oh, really? Then how do you explain your presence here after being arrested for helping an escaped convict?"

He opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. "All the charges have been dropped."

"How did you manage that?" she asked before she remembered that she wasn't supposed to allow herself to engage with him anymore.

"I convinced them that Lorelei kidnapped me and was going to take me to Red John to be killed. I was a victim in the whole thing."

"Congratulations," she said sarcastically. "You've managed to make a mockery out of our justice system once again."

"Please. The state of California is much better off using my skills for its own ends than trying to fight against them. Imagine all the wasted man hours spent searching for me if I decided to escape again."

She pursed her lips in disapproval. "What happened to 'I'm a no good dog who doesn't deserve to see the light of day for a long time?'"

He turned his head to look at her. "I was worried about you."

She barked a short, bitter laugh. "You're a day late and more than a few dollars short on that, Jane. What do you really want?"

He blinked. "I told you, I was worried about you. I wanted to talk to you, but since it was clear you had no intention of visiting me in jail and you refused to talk to me when I came to see you after I escaped, obviously I had to arrange to visit you without the threat of more jail time over my head."

"Obviously," she muttered. "Did it ever occur to you to take a hint, Jane?"

"Of course, I knew you were very upset and didn't want to talk to me. But the fact that you haven't even begun to forgive me by this point is rather out of character. You weren't acting like yourself; ergo, I needed to make sure you were all right."

God, he was infuriating. "As you can see, I'm perfectly fine, Jane, so you can move on to the next stage in your grand plan. What are you going to do now? Go camp out by Lorelei's cell in hopes that she'll let Red John's real name slip in her sleep or something?"

"I thought I'd come back to work here."

"You think you have a chance in hell of being reinstated, after the latest stunt you pulled?" Lisbon asked incredulously.

"Well, clearly, that process will go much more smoothly if you help me."

"Forget it, Jane. I'm not helping you."

"Come on, Lisbon. How else am I supposed to get back onto the unit?"

She looked at him. "The thing is, Jane, I'm not so sure it's a good idea for you to come back to the unit."

He looked at her sharply. "What?"

"You've grown steadily more self-destructive with every year that I've known you, Jane. It would be one thing if the only person that affected was you, but if I let you come back, it's only a matter of time before one of your crazy schemes puts someone on the team in grave danger."

"What happened to the joys of having the highest closure rate in the state for open cases?" Jane demanded. "What happened to 'we're a family?'"

"I care more about keeping my people safe than I do about how the numbers add up at the end of the month," she responded. "If you think differently, you don't know me at all. As for the other, you turned your back on this family a long time ago, Jane. We have to look out for ourselves, now."

He looked furious. "I didn't turn my back on anybody! You know I care about what happens to you, what happens to the team. Don't make it sound like I don't."

She shrugged. "If that's the case, you haven't done a very good job of showing it, Jane. I have to go with the evidence I see, not the words I hear."

"So that's it?" he said incredulously. "I'm out? Off the unit, just like that?"

She nodded, her heart breaking. "I'm sorry it has to be like this."

"We're so close, Lisbon," he pleaded. "We can catch him, if we just work together on this. I'm sure of it."

She shook her head. "Leave me out of it, Jane. I'm done helping you create messes that I have to clean up afterwards."

"This is your final decision?"

"Yes. You're no longer part of the Serious Crimes Unit, effective immediately."

His jaw tightened. "This isn't over," he warned. And then he stormed out of her office without another word.


	4. Chapter 4

He was already in the bullpen when she arrived at work the next morning.

He looked up when he saw her, and she saw a flash of concern cross his face. She wondered what it was for, but then she realized she must look a wreck, after the wretched night's sleep she'd gotten the night before, worrying about him. More hours of sleep lost over a lost cause. Well, screw him. Her mouth hardened into a tight line. She didn't need his pity. "I thought I made myself clear yesterday," she said harshly.

He sipped his tea. "Abundantly."

"Yet you're still here."

"As it turns out, my dear Lisbon, you don't have the ultimate hiring and firing authority around here."

"I do for my own team," she said through gritted teeth.

He arched an elegant brow. "That's true, except for very special circumstances."

Oh, God. He hadn't.

Who was she kidding? Of course he had. "What did you use to blackmail Bertram this time?" she said flatly.

"That's for me to know and you hopefully never to find out. As I said, it would have gone more smoothly if you'd helped me, but you forced my hand," he said with a shrug.

"Nobody forced you to go over my head, you son of a bitch," Lisbon returned angrily. "That was all you."

"I didn't go over your head," he protested. He paused. "Just behind your back."

"What you did was make me look weak and ineffectual, Jane. If I can't control my own team, what kind of leader am I?"

He looked startled. "No one thinks you're ineffectual, Lisbon. Bertram knows how I am—he doesn't think any less of you for what I've done. He's the one who's ineffectual. He can't stand me and he can't get rid of me."

"I know the feeling," she shot back.

"Nothing I do reflects on you—you're an amazing leader, and everyone knows it."

"Everything you do reflects on me," Lisbon said. "That's what it means to be a leader."

"You're the best—and the strongest leader I know." He looked up at her, his eyes serious. "That's why I want to be on your team, Lisbon."

"No, it isn't," she snapped. "Your only interest in being here is to be close to the investigation on Red John. Don't try to dress it up into something it's not."

He smiled at her. "I wouldn't say that's my *only* interest in being here."

She huffed in frustration and angrily stalked away from him.

He was insufferable. He thought he could get what he wanted by doing an end run around her defensive line, did he?

Well, she thought furiously, two could play at that game.


	5. Chapter 5

It was a bitter pill to swallow, admitting defeat, but she did it unflinchingly, certain that the one thing Jane would not expect from her was surrender. It stung more than she cared to admit, telling her boss that her team was no longer equipped to handle the Red John case—in other words, that *she* was no longer fit to lead it. She calmly told him that the unit had been compromised, and her voice didn't even shake when she recommended that the case be transferred to the FBI.

Bertram, evidently still smarting from the effects of his most recent encounter with Jane, was only too happy to embrace any course of action which included the possibility of Jane's voluntary removal from the purview of the CBI. He seized on the idea with unprecedented eagerness, and the transfer was complete, on paper anyway, by the end of the day.

She felt cold and drained when it was over. She was angry that Jane had forced her hand, full of doubt that another team could handle the case as well as hers, and full of anxiety about his reaction. She also felt a sense of relief, that the case that had caused so many sleepless nights and so much stomach-churning anxiety on Jane's account was no longer her responsibility.

Unfortunately, this was mostly out-weighed by the sense of failure.

She returned to headquarters with a heavy heart and gathered the team together to tell them what she'd done.

Mercifully, Jane was not around when she broke the news to the rest of the team. She had no doubt that he would find out sooner or later, but it was a relief to be able to tell the rest of the team without the distraction of what was certain to be a volatile reaction from Jane.

The team took it better than she expected. They were upset, naturally. It always felt like a professional slight to have a case taken away from you, no matter the circumstances. She tried to take the sting out as much as she could, telling them truthfully that her decision was in no way a reflection on their abilities and that she appreciated all their hard work and professionalism throughout the most difficult situations in the case. They weren't happy about the situation, but they seemed to understand. No one mentioned Jane. Rigsby asked several questions about the transition, and Lisbon answered them to the best of her ability. Grace maintained a stony silence, but periodically Lisbon caught her shooting angry glares at Jane's empty couch. Lisbon wasn't sure she was conscious of what she was doing, but it was obvious she was angry at the consultant for more than just the loss of the Red John case. Lisbon appreciated the silent display of support.

Afterwards, she left the team to discuss what she'd done amongst themselves, knowing that they would speak more freely without her in the room. Shortly afterwards, Cho followed her into her office and sat down in the visitor chair, regarding her with his usual impassive expression.

"Well?" she said quietly. "What do you think?" She spared a moment to be grateful for Cho, who she could count on to tell her the absolute truth without sugar-coating it.

He looked her straight in the eye. "You did the right thing."

"Did I?" she sighed. "Then why does it feel like I'm turning my back on something incredibly important?"

Cho shrugged. "I'm not saying it doesn't suck. Just that it was the right thing to do. Jane is a ticking time bomb. The way he's been going, it was only a matter of time before he caused everything to blow up in our faces."

"It was the only thing I could think of to stop him," she said, feeling defeated. "Or at least slow him down."

Cho shook his head. "It was a ballsy move."

"Right, it takes a lot of guts to throw in the towel when the going gets rough," Lisbon said dryly.

"I'm serious. It's the most courageous thing I've seen anyone do in a long time. I wouldn't have done it. And I'm not just talking about being brave enough to deal with whatever fit Jane is going to throw when he finds out."

"Yeah, that's going to be a fun conversation, telling him I took the Red John case out from under his nose," Lisbon said, her insides churning with dread.

"He's not going to hear it from you," Cho said with certainty.

She raised her eyebrows. "No?"

"Are you kidding? He's going to get it off Rigsby in about five seconds. As soon as he sees Rigsby avoiding eye contact with him, he'll know something's up, and he won't let it alone. Rigsby will crack like an egg."

Lisbon said nothing. No matter who told him, it would be her who had to deal with the fallout.

Cho nodded at her desk drawer. "Got any booze in there?"

She took out two glasses and the bottle of tequila and poured them each a generous shot.

He raised his glass and looked at her. "To Teresa Lisbon," he said, straight-faced. "The ballsiest woman I know."

She was startled into a genuine laugh and raised hers back in silent salute.

They clinked their glasses together and knocked back their shots.

Cho stood up to leave. "I'd offer to beat him up for you, but I'm pretty sure you could do more damage to him than I could."

"Well, I appreciate the offer, anyway," Lisbon told him.

He paused in the doorway. "We have your back, boss," he said seriously. "All of us."

Lisbon was touched. She clutched the support of her team to her like a lifeline. "Thanks, Cho."

xxx

She spent the rest of the afternoon working on her monthly budget report, an activity which, though mind-numbing, provided sufficient distraction from the feeling of dread that might otherwise have threatened to overwhelm her while she waited for Jane to come to her.

That he would, she had no doubt. The confrontation was sure to be spectacular, but as much as she wasn't looking forward to it, as the hours wore on, she found herself wishing he would turn up so they could just get it over with.

She'd just finished the report when he finally burst into her office, beautiful and enraged.

She knotted her hands together and placed them on the desk in front of her. "I take it you heard."

His mouth twisted. "I heard that you transferred the Red John case behind my back, yes."

How he could sound so betrayed by this action when he'd practically bragged about going behind her back not even a day before, she couldn't even begin to fathom. She ignored his hypocrisy. "The FBI is taking it over as soon as we can get the files transferred over."

He collapsed onto her couch. "How could you not tell me?"

"I told the team. You weren't around."

"I was in the attic!"

"How was I supposed to know that? You might have been releasing another criminal into the general population, for all I knew."

"You might have checked."

"You didn't bother to inform anyone of your whereabouts, and I wasn't about to waste anybody's time searching for you."

"You excluded me on purpose."

"If you want to be treated like a member of this team, you should act like it. That means not disappearing for hours on end without telling anyone where you're going."

He ground his teeth. "You won't get away with this."

"It's done, Jane. The FBI is in charge of the case, effective immediately."

He looked at her mutinously. "I'll get it back. You know I can do it."

She gestured helplessly. "Do you want me to resign? Because that's my next move here."

"Of course I don't want you to resign," he said angrily. "I want to work with you."

"Well, as of today, you can either work with me, or you can work on the Red John case, but you can't do both."

"How can you just give up, after all we've been through on this case?"

The façade of calm she was working so hard to maintain cracked a little at this. "Do you think this is easy for me?" she demanded. "Do you think I like the idea of turning over a case over to the FBI? Of admitting to my boss, to the FBI, to my team, that I failed?"

"We haven't failed," Jane said stubbornly. "We just haven't succeeded yet."

"*I* failed, Jane. But I'm not going to compound my failure by making another huge mistake."

"By letting me pursue Red John leads my way, you mean," he said angrily.

"Yes," she said, looking him right in the eye. By letting him risk his life and those of her team for every insane idea that came into his head to feed his dark, dangerous obsession. By letting him lose a little more of himself with every additional effort. She might not be able to stop it, but she wasn't going to watch idly by anymore, helpless to take action. And she damn well wasn't going to be a willing accomplice in the destruction of all the good that was left in him.

"It's not going to work," he said. "Whatever it is you're trying. I can always go to the FBI and get them to put me on the case as a consultant there."

For once, she was way ahead of him. She'd even called Agent Darcy to let her know she should expect Jane to show up sooner or later. The poor woman deserved to be warned of the incipient storm, at least. Still, despite having anticipated them, she couldn't help feeling the words like a blow. "Do what you want, Jane," she said tiredly. "You always do, anyway."

"So this is the end?" he said harshly. "Our partnership is over, after all this time?"

"So it would seem," she said coolly.

Something that looked like defeat passed over his face. He looked down at his hands. "How could you betray me like this?" He sounded almost forlorn.

She closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Jane. I wish it didn't have to be like this."

Then, because she couldn't bear the idea of living the rest of her life without at least knowing what it was like to taste him, she walked over to the couch, took his face in her hands, and kissed him, long and sweet. "Good-bye, Jane," she whispered, more heartsick than she'd ever been in her life.

And then she turned on her heel and left without looking back.


	6. Chapter 6

Thank you everyone for the kind reviews. They are so greatly appreciated.

xxx

She was certain she would never see him again, or if she did, it would be only as she crossed paths with the FBI team now investigating the Red John case. He'd probably gone straight to Darcy to volunteer his services. If Darcy wasn't amenable right away, he'd come up with some scheme to force her to accept him onto her team. Lisbon would have been willing to wager a large sum of money that he'd have a new contract with the FBI signed within hours of his discovery of her betrayal.

Which is why it came as somewhat of a shock to see him in his usual place on his couch the next day, drinking tea with a stony expression on his face. She did a double take, and then said good morning to the rest of the team before risking another glance over at him. "Hey, Jane," she said tentatively.

He ignored her.

Silent treatment, huh? Interesting. She'd never experienced that from Jane before. Normally she couldn't get him to shut up, even when she wanted him to.

She was confused. Had Darcy proved harder to manipulate than he'd thought? Even if that was the case, and he hadn't been able to worm his way into the FBI investigation yet, what was he doing here sulking instead of hanging out at the FBI orchestrating a new plot to blackmail Darcy into taking him on? It was weird.

Cho handed her a file. "Got a new case, boss. Two co-eds killed up at Chico State."

"Okay," she said, still staring at Jane. "I'll take a look at the file and we'll leave in fifteen minutes."

"Sounds like a plan," Cho responded. "Two cars or one?"

"One," she replied. She glanced at Jane again. "Are you planning on joining us, Jane?"

No response.

"Jane," she said loudly. "Are you coming, or not?"

He scowled into his teacup and did not reply.

"Jane," Cho said sharply. "The boss is talking to you. Show her some respect or I'll make you."

He took a sip of his tea and made a show of composedly setting his cup back on his saucer. "Cho, you may inform Agent Lisbon that I'm not inclined to converse with any backstabbing women today."

Rigsby and Van Pelt exchanged frightened glances and hastily ducked their heads under the pretense of busying themselves with paperwork.

Lisbon's eyebrows climbed upwards. Backstabbing women? Not exactly his most clever insult. If he'd really wanted to hurt her, he could have come up with something far more devastating without really trying. What was his game?

Cho made an angry movement towards the consultant, but Lisbon forestalled him. She laid a hand on Cho's arm. "Let it go," she warned him.

"But—"

"Drop it," she said. "He can do what he wants."

But to her surprise, Jane chose to accompany them on the hour and a half long journey to Chico. Cho was driving, and Lisbon was riding shotgun, with Jane in the back and Rigsby and Van Pelt the unhappy buffers in the middle. Van Pelt and Rigsby made a point of ignoring Jane and soliciting Lisbon's opinion on a variety of topics from music to the list of probable suspects they would be set to interrogate once they arrived at their destination. Lisbon, for her part, answered them distractedly, concerned that Cho was going to drive them into a ditch at any moment, because his eyes kept leaving the road ahead to glare at Jane through the rearview mirror.

Jane said nothing for the duration of the trip, and wandered off immediately once they arrived at the scene. He offered no useful insights and seemed determined not to expend the least amount of effort to help the investigation.

Lisbon was more confused than ever. Why was he here?

It was the same for the next several days. He would speak pleasantly enough to the team, though they weren't inclined to do the same—they were all furious with him, on Lisbon's behalf—but he refused to speak to Lisbon. At the same time, he refused to leave. He was on his couch in the mornings, and rode along to witness interviews like a particularly dour shadow. They solved the case without any input from him, and he continued to dole out a relentless course of the silent treatment the likes of which she had never experienced.

He meant it to wound, but in a strange way, it was a relief. It gave her time to figure out why he was still there. She'd called Darcy, and the FBI agent informed her that Jane hadn't requested to be assigned to the Red John case. He hadn't even called or done so much as show up uninvited. Lisbon hung up the phone, perplexed. This was puzzling indeed.

On the fourth day, he wasn't there.

Her eyes went automatically to his couch when she entered the bullpen, but it was empty. Her heart stopped. It had happened then. He was gone.

Cho took one look at her face and knew exactly what she was thinking. "He hasn't left," he informed her. "He's in the attic."

Her heart started beating again. "Thanks," she managed, and made for the stairs.

xxx

He was sitting in the lone chair in the attic when she found him, staring out the window.

He didn't turn around when he heard her, but of course he knew it was her. "You're doing the smart thing," he said, his voice strange and bitter. "Cutting me out of your life."

Of course he would see it like that, all backwards. Like she wouldn't give her right arm to have him stay.

She sighed. "That's not what I'm doing, Jane."

"Of course it is. You're right to do it. You're cutting me away like a cancer. Painful in the short term, but likely to save you in the end."

"Yeah, well," she said, keeping her voice light. "It turns out I'm not exactly eager to go under the knife."

He looked at her sharply and belatedly, she realized that the reference to herself being put under a knife probably wasn't the most appropriate thing to say to a man whose family had been stabbed to death. Especially when the killer had recently asked for her head in a box.

She smiled weakly. "Sorry. I probably should have dropped the metaphor."

He looked away. "I don't blame you. You're finally demonstrating a healthy sense of self-preservation, trying to get away from me."

She felt a stab of irritation. For someone so smart, he could be extremely obtuse at times. "I'm not the one walking away."

He ignored this. "You are forcing me to choose between catching Red John and being with you."

"I'm not forcing you to do anything," she said tiredly. "I am merely choosing to no longer follow you on the path you chose for yourself a long time ago."

"If I were stronger, I would let you do it," he said bleakly. "I would let you drive me away."

"What does you being strong have to do with anything?" It was her own weakness that had gotten them into this mess. Her inability to resist him, even when he set them on a course bound for destruction.

"I can't give you up," he whispered. "You'd be better off if I did. But I'm too damn selfish."

She froze. His words caused a ringing in her ears and her world to tilt irrevocably on its axis. "Is that why you're still here?" she blurted out. "Because of me?"

He looked at her. "Of course it is. What did you think?"

"I had no idea what you were thinking, Jane. I thought you'd go straight to the FBI once the case was transferred. I've been trying to figure out for the past three days why you hadn't left yet."

He slowly reached out and took her hand in his. "Why do you think I broke out of jail?"

She laced her fingers through his. "To show off your own cleverness and get back in my good graces so I wouldn't put up a fuss when you wanted to execute your next crazy scheme."

"Maybe I wanted to get back in your good graces for their own sake."

Despite the way he was looking at her and the warmth of his hand in hers, she couldn't quite bring herself to believe him. "Right. Your desire to plot your next move against Red John had nothing to do with your sudden appearance on my doorstep."

"I confess that at the time, I wasn't looking that far ahead. I just wanted to see you."

He made it sound so simple. "You were so angry at me, when I transferred the case."

"I thought you were just doing it to get back at me. And then I was angry when I realized you truly didn't want me around anymore."

She sighed. "I never said I didn't want you around anymore."

"Then why did you do it?"

"Because you'd gone off the rails yet again, without telling me anything about your plan. You broke the law and helped a murderer's accomplice escape imprisonment. You proved that you don't trust me, or the team, and that I have no influence over you. While you…" she took a deep breath. "You have a tremendous amount of influence over me."

He raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"Yes," she admitted. "Time and time again you've persuaded me to go along with your schemes, and I let you do it, because they usually work. But sometimes they don't, and I couldn't go on pretending that the way we went about it didn't matter to me. There are certain lines I'm not willing to cross, Jane, and the only way I could think to show you I was serious about not crossing them was to take myself off the Red John case."

"Lisbon, why on earth would you think I don't trust you?"

"Because you shut me out. You purposefully kept me out of the loop while you were in Vegas, and again with this whole stunt breaking Lorelei Martins out of jail."

"I didn't keep you out of the loop because I didn't trust you! I kept you out of the loop because I knew you wouldn't approve. I knew you would try to stop me. You see, you have a tremendous amount of influence over me, as well."

"Funny, I've never noticed any evidence of that," she said dryly.

"Well, it wouldn't do to let you see something like that."

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "No?"

"Of course not. All that power might go straight to your head."

"I see," she mocked him. "All this time, when I thought you just weren't listening, you've been afraid of making a tyrant of me."

"Exactly," he confirmed. "After all, in chess, the queen is the most powerful player."

"Oh?"

He smiled wryly. "Yes. A fact which I have learned only too well, based on your latest move. You outmaneuvered me brilliantly, my dear. I confess, I didn't see it coming. I thought I would be able to talk you around, as long as I had time on my side. But you got me into checkmate without me even seeing that I was outflanked." He looked up at her. "Your little farewell kiss was a particularly cunning move."

She blushed. Of course he would tease her for that. "I wasn't trying to outflank you, Jane. I just needed you to understand you can't have everything your own way all the time. That there are consequences to your actions."

"That is why you won the game, Lisbon," he said affectionately. "You may occasionally be taken in by my tricks, but you always keep the big picture in mind, and you're willing to make difficult sacrifices to get there. I haven't been doing the best job of that recently."

"What do you mean?"

"Lately, I've been having trouble seeing beyond the most immediate threat."

"Which is what?"

He didn't answer for a long time, merely brought her hand close to him and trapped it against his chest, over his beating heart. Finally he said, "As the strongest piece, the queen is the most valuable player. Therefore, it's most unwise to leave her unprotected. A threat to her could be devastating."

Her eyes narrowed. "You're back on this protection bit? Haven't I told you a hundred times that I can take care of myself?"

He shrugged, as though to indicate he couldn't help himself, so there was no point in arguing the matter.

She gave up. She pulled her hand free and ran it through her hair. "Well, what are you going to do now?"

"What do you want me to do?" he asked her. "I am yours to command, my Queen."

She rolled her eyes. "Quit kidding around. I'm serious."

"So am I. Do you want me to give up on the Red John case? Stay here with you and solve nice, boring murders until we are old and gray?"

She stared at him. "You'd really do that, if I asked you to?"

"Yes."

"Why?" she breathed, almost horrified, in a way, that he would consider such a thing, for her.

"Because, my dear, I've faced the prospect of life without you, and I've realized that I'm willing to do just about anything to avoid that fate." He took a deep breath and she noticed that his hands were shaking ever so slightly. "So I will give up my revenge, if you wish it. I can't promise that Red John will let me walk away for good—he might even try to take you, to punish me, but for my part, I'm willing to step back, if that's what you want."

The temptation to take what he was offering was so strong she could taste it in the back of her throat. "The thing is," she said slowly. "I don't want you to give up your revenge because it's something I want, Jane. I want you to give it up because you want to. Because you've found peace. And after pursuing this course for so long, I doubt you'll be able to find that peace until Red John has been caught."

"What are you saying?"

She sighed. "I don't know. I don't want you to leave, but maybe it's for the best. The FBI does have more resources than we do. Maybe they'll be able to make more progress than we have on the Red John case."

"The FBI has a mole," he reminded her. "Someone close to Red John who betrayed our plan to him."

She shrugged. "Then maybe you can infiltrate the ranks and flush him out."

"He still might come after you," he whispered. "To get to me."

"I know, Jane. But there's not much we can do about that in any case, is there? We just have to be as prepared as we can for whatever comes."

He regarded her intently. "You really want me to go work with the FBI?"

"No. I want you to stay here and solve nice, boring murder cases. But I think you should. Who knows, maybe it will shake things up a bit. It won't be something that Red John will be expecting, is it?"

He laughed, a genuine laugh. "No. I think it's safe to say that he wouldn't have been expecting this move."

She took his hand again. "I'll miss working with you," she confessed. "Despite the lies and the tricks."

He smirked. "Don't you mean because of them?"

She glared at him. "I definitely won't miss the arrogance, that's for sure. Or the paperwork."

He got a calculating look in his eye. "If you have less paperwork to do, does that mean you'll have more time for life outside the office?"

She looked back at him. "Maybe."

He brought her hand to his lips and dropped a gentle kiss on her palm. "Could I persuade you to abandon your devotion to duty from time to time to spend time with me?"

"Well," she smirked, enjoying the feeling of his lips on her skin. "You're very persuasive. I expect you could."

"If I'm leaving the CBI for real now, does that mean I get another good-bye kiss?"

She looked down at him. "You want me to kiss you good-bye?"

"The last one was quite memorable. I wouldn't mind repeating the experience."

"Perhaps I should just leave you to your memories," she teased.

He gave her a slow smile. "If it's all the same to you, I think I'd prefer to make some new ones."

So they did.


End file.
